Flow
by howl-of-fire
Summary: Korra is trying to improve her airbending techniques after her first pro-bending match. However she's sets the bar a little to high for herself, and is having a little bit of difficulty. Howl tries to convince her to take a break, but Korra insitsts. So they make a compromise. Rated T for saftey. One-shot.


Howl had been patrolling the outside of the building complex on Air Temple Island when he noticed Korra practicing her airbending (or at least the motions to it since she had yet to actually produce a wisp of air) by navigating some spinning doors that had symbol of the Air Nomads on them. According to her, you were supposed blast them with airbending to get them move and from then on you're supposed to be "like a leaf" and dodge the doors without getting hit. It sounded simple enough at the time but seeing them now he knew otherwise.

They were moving VERY fast. Just looking at them was making him feel rather dizzy. He didn't know how Korra could do it. But then again, she really WASN'T doing it, at least not very well.

Korra was making good progress to be fair but about halfway in, the doors would get her and she would be sent into another door and then another, until she was knocked flat onto the ground in the same direction she had entered. After that attempt she tried about 6 more times before she stopped getting up and simply sat there on the ground giving the doors the stink eye.

"What am I doing wrong?" Korra exclaimed. "I mean, I was able to do it fine in that pro-bending match!"

"Well you did ask me to make the doors move faster. Do you want me to ease up a little so you can practice more?" Tenzin's oldest daugher Jinora said.

"No." Korra said "I have to be able to do it at the same speed that you can, otherwise what's the point?"

"The point is to get better, and you aren't going to get better if you keep getting smacked in the face by doors."

Korra simply scoffed at this though, so Howl decided to speak up.

"She's right, if anything all of those bruises you're accumulating will just slow you down in the long run." Howl said as he approached the two girls.

Korra twisted around to face him with a rather angry look.

"So what? I can take it!" Korra insisted.

"Thats really not the point Korra." Howl replied.

The young airbender looked between the two teenagers before her.

"Do you two know each other?" She asked with a puzzled look.

Howl realized that he hadn't actually introduced himself to Jinora yet, he just knew who she was from speaking with Tenzin. The master airbender made pleasant conversation and played a mean game of Pai Sho.

"I'm Howl, Korra's best friend." He explained.

"Hmmmm." Jinora said with a mischievous smile. "So how long have you known each other?"

Howl's face grew red as he caught the implifications of Jinora's words and immediately tried to avoid answering her, especially with Korra only a few feet away.

"Uh, w-well for a few years!" He stamerred. _Real smooth Howl. They totally won't catch on to THAT._ He thought to himself.

"Anyway!" He said trying to prevent Jinora from inquiring more on the subject. "So yeah, Korra you should think about taking a break."

"No, I said I'm fine!" She insisted.

"Korra, you're obviously not getting anywhere like this, you have to take it easy." Howl responded folding his arms.

"What would you know about this anyway? You got some kind of secret airbending technique in those books of yours?"

"Well, no but I don't think I need to know any of that stuff to tell you that smacking into objects isn't a part of the training regimen."

"Oh yeah? Well since you seem to so much about it why don't YOU give it a try?" Korra said.

Howl sighed. Korra usually wasn't like this, he knew that her bending training was important to her but he didn't think she'd get THIS worked up over it.

"Korra-"

"Look, Howl I'll cut you a deal. If YOU can get through the doors I'll take the rest of the afternoon off of training. But if you can't you have to keep your mouth shut and leave me be." She growled with her hands on her hips.

Howl looked her over thinking about the offer. She was pretty beat up, bruises covered most of her exposed skin and he could swear that she had a little bit of a limp. Howl sighed again. He couldn't possibly say no. He knew there was no chance of convincing her to stop any other way. He simply couldn't let the most important person in his life continue to hurt herself like this.

He pulled his cloak off his shoulders so it wouldn't get in his way while he preformed all of the twisting and turning required for the exercise and nodded towards Jinora.

She seemed hesitant to let him try. After all Korra had experience at this and she still couldn't do it well. But Korra gave her a rather sharp look and realized she didn't have much choice. At least not if she didn't want to wake up with several of her possesions missing, or worse Korra might convince Meelo to pester her for the rest of the week. That boy would do anything for something with sugar in it.

Jinora performed a pushing motion with her hands and a gust of air shot outwards and made the doors turn once more.

Howl approached the doors, and he noticed that Jinora had rather mercifully set the doors to move at much slower pace than the pace Korra had been training at, not that it made this any easier. Howl wasn't really afraid of pain, he was a sentry after all, the entire point of his job was to be protect Korra. But he was a firebender. Firebenders applied positive jing, attacking and advancing, while airbenders applied negative jing, defending and retreating. The two fighting styles couldn't be any more diffrent. Odds were he was going to get very VERY bruised at the end of this. Normally Korra would fix him up with her healing techniques but he doubted she would do him that favor conisdering how angry she was at him. He could have another White Lotus member do it but nobody was as good as Korra at healing except maybe her teacher Katara.

_Okay, just calm down and focus. No need to rush in. _He thought to himself.

He examined the doors, searching for a pattern in their movement.

"Howl, waiting for the doors to slow down is cheating!" Korra said interrupting his thoughts.

"W-what? Thats not what I was doing!"

"Then whats the problem? Giving up so soon?"

"Never." Howl said with determination.

Howl tried to relax as he stepped forward into the doors.

Only a second passed before the first obstical came spinning towards him. He twisted around only to feel a second door slam into his back. He almost lost his balance but managed to move out of the way of a third door. But again another door that he could barely see came toward him. He managed to avoid it, but only just.

"Stay light on your feet!" Jinora shouted to him.

"No helping!" Korra growled.

For 20 seconds or so Howl proceded like this, maneuvering through the doors while getting grazed and bruised. He couldn't keep his bearings very well with all of the turning but he was pretty sure he ended up backtracking a few times.

Suddenly he stepped backwards and his foot failed to find ground and he toppled to the floor. He stood up slowly, careful not to aggrivate his bruises. Then he turned around he saw Jinora and Korra...on the other side of the spinning gates. By some miracle Howl had completed the excersice without getting killed or breaking any bones.

Korra just stood there shocked. Howl had managed to do in one try what had taken her weeks to do.

Howl approached the pair, going AROUND the doors this time.

"So how did I do?" He wheezed due to a few bruises on his chest that made it painful to breathe.

"That was great!" Jinora exclaimed "It took us both weeks to do that! Even Daddy took a while to do it the first time! At least thats what he told us."

Howl blushed from such high praise. Better than Tenzin? At airbending? It just didn't seem possible. "Ah...well I got pretty messed up so I could have done better..."

Howl picked his cloak up off the ground and set it back on his shoulders, dusting off any dirt that may have gotten on it in the process.

"Well that was still way better than anything I could do when I first started." Korra said. "Uh hey...Howl?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm...really sorry. About...y'know...all that stuff I said."

Howl turned his attention away from his cloak to look at Korra. Her cyan eyes were directed at the ground and her shoulders we're slumped. She was sad, and it made his heart ache to see her like that.

"Korra," He said softly. "I know how important bending is to you. I completely understand that you'd be a little frustrated about this."

"But I shouldn't have taken it out on you! You were just trying to look out for me and I blew up in your face!" Korra exclamed.

"Korra its fine. Really." He said with a warm smile, trying his best to comfort the young Avatar.

Korra looked up at him, searching his face for any sign that he might be lying. But she found none. He was probably never even mad to begin with. That's just how Howl was. Always looking out for her and considering her feelings. After a few moments of silence Korra suddenly pulled him into a rather tight hug, smiling broadly.

"Thanks Howl, you really are the best."

Howl's smile widened as he returned the hug, tracing small circles on her back with his thumb as he tried to ignore the intense pain he felt from Korra's arms aggrivating his bruises, but he wouldn't do anything that would end this moment prematurely so he just kept holding her, taking in deep breaths from his nose, smelling Korra's wonderful jasmine scent.

"Hey," Korra pulled away from him slightly "after we get you fixed up why don't we go out for awhile? I mean, I'll need something to do with my day since I won't be training anymore."

_Actually, I haven't spent much time with him at all recently._ Thought Korra sadly. I_ mean, between training and pro-bending I just haven't had the time._ What kind of person was she to put her best friend below everything else? Back at the South Pole she spent the majority of her time with him, whether that was training together, riding on Naga or just sitting down to talk. Those were some of the best days of her life. It's true she had more on her plate now than back then but that wasn't really an excuse. He was her best friend, the person she trusted and cared for more than anyone else and she had to make more time for him.

Back in reality Howl's cheeks were turned up at max capacity now.

"Sure! Its about time I got off anyway. I'll need to change out of my uniform too. Plus we have to deal with your bruises as well." He said gesturing toward the purple marks on her arms.

Korra glanced down and chuckled. "Oh yeah those…I kinda forgot about those."

Howl rolled his eyes. "Where would you be without me Korra?"

"I try not to think about that too much."

They kept pace with each other started walking back toward the building. Howl noticed Jinora giving them that mischeivous smile again as they walked off. He was glad that they were far out of hearing range so he would have to answer any more questions about their relationship.

Suddenly Korra spoke up.

"Hey, Howl?"

"Yeah?"

"How DID you manage to complete that excersise?"

Howl scratched his ear a bit while he thought. "Well, I guess I just tried to relax as much as I could and just…flow.

Korra gave him a skepitcal look, "Flow?"

"Yeah, like a river or something. Pretend you're the river and the doors are rocks."

Korra rolled her eyes. "Rocks don't typically spin, Howl."

"Sorry…I'm really not sure how else to put it." He said apologeticly

"Well apparently you're a better airbender than me so I thought I'd ask."

"And a better firebender too." He teased.

Korra would have punched him for that one if he wasn't already injured so she just settled for stealing his helmet again, laughing as Howl chased after her.

**A/N: **Sorry that this one was shorter than the last, I ended up writing this one in a day. I hope you still liked it though. But tell me what you think of it in a review regardless.

*Thanks to my friend Inujake7 for re-editing my story.*


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